If you follow me on Twitter, you’ll already have this spicy hot take.

Don’t get your hopes up because children on Twitter are making up lies about the return dates of players.

We’ll start with two that aren’t hard ‘NO WAYS’ but they’re not far off.

The next time you see Thomas Partey and Tomiyasu, they’ll most likely be wearing another team’s colors.

Not because they’ve been sold, but because they’ll be playing at Asia Cup and AFCON.

Could Partey be included for the Liverpool game? For sure. The player obviously wants to get out there and show the world he mugged Declan Rice off against West Ham last year… but, that would be quite risky for Arsenal. If he’s not sold, there’s no midfielder on the planet more useful to our title run-in. Thomas owes us big time. One last jaunt before he goes to Saudi or Italy.

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My first game back at The Emirates since I paid £400 to see us beat Manchester United.

What a great evening!

One of the reasons I took a job in the midwest to work on a new football club was having the chance to impact the experience of people who will grow up with football their whole life. When you return to the experience that pock-marked your upbringing with all sorts of impactful memories and moments, it’s special. You’re back where you were 8 years ago when you were season ticket holding. There is literally nothing better than being a season ticketholder at Arsenal. Nothing.

I wasn’t sure how the game would go. We boast a particularly moldy record against Brighton. They are mini-us and they seem to relish playing against their richer brethren.

Well, not last night.

It was a brutal display of JdP football from Mikel Arteta from arguably his strongest side – and can I say it? A very peak-Arsene-Wenger-frustrating-evenining. I mean that as a complement. We absolutely battered Brighton for the whole game. 26 attempts at goal, 9 hitting the target… and in the end, it felt like Brighton could have escaped with a point after a mini-flurry at the end.  Very Charlton circ-2004ish.

It wasn’t to be. Eddie Nketiah came on and combined with Kai Havertz to make the difference. His slick reverse pass into his run ended with the German poking the ball under the keeper for a BIG GAME winner.

I’ll talk about our first goal now because it was weird. The easiest of the match. Not the type of Arsenal goal we seemed to want in a game where we were seeking a multi-pass masterpiece. It was a corner that found Jesus open at the back post for a diving header into an empty net. Thierry scored one of those against Liverpool once, and his celebration was a shrug of the shoulders.

‘Ugly can happen to me’

That win was even bigger considering the wider context of Manchester City dropping 2 points late against Palace and Liverpool playing a bore draw against United. That leaves Arsenal back on top of the league heading into a MAJOR Liverpool game.

We have freshness on our side with Liverpool managing a quarter-final against West Ham in the League Cup.

I’m also finding it hard to forget about how bland Liverpool was against United. The results say they could win the title, but I’m not feeling sexy about how they play in general. They look one or two injuries away from problems. A lot is going there way. But the late losing moments they are turning around come from dismal displays, not unfairness like Arsenal.

Our big players are putting on big performances. Delcan Rice was monstrous in midfield again, he covers so much ground, he always knows where to be, and some of his one-touch-line-breaking passing is delicious. He looked like the new Vieira yesterday.

Martin Odegaard has surfed the waves of criticism, but he was back on top last night. He was everywhere, even with those final ball passes we don’t see enough of at times. It’s been a slow start hampered by injury, so hopefully, we’re going to see a turning point for him.

It’d also be remiss to ignore King Kai and the major shift he put in. The man is so fast, so aggressive, and so good in that left 8 position now he’s got a bit of confidence about what he needs to be doing in our system. £65m players have final action output and my word is he starting to look like he could be the output machine he was at Bayer Leverkusen.  The critics are VERY quiet at the moment. Just remember who couldn’t see it with Kai, because there were a lot on his back.

Oh, Gabriel Jesus. The man is the most world-class striker we’ve had since Thierry if you exclude goals. He has it all. He defends, he attacks, he picks balls out of the air without breaking a sweat. He is a nightmare machine for defenders because he plays where he wants and it is so hard to deal with his dazzling feet. Last night, he was sensational, and he scored. Can’t knock it, can you?

Final word for Eddie… the man has a great all-around game but his assist numbers are dreadful. It was brilliant to see him contribute to a game that way, because a lot of us were huffing at his inclusion.

Now I’ve done some tourist fandom, I do have to say, there were a lot of empty seats around the stadium yesterday, and the common theme when talking to people is the atmosphere ain’t the same. Instead of bottling what was working, it seems the club has broken something in the drive to clamp down on ticket touting (and driving towards fairness in how tickets are distributed). Sometimes, the best policies can have unforeseen circumstances. Making it really hard for fans to transfer tickets most certainly reduces some touts, but the bigger issue seems to be that it makes it really hard for people to fill tickets last minute. There shouldn’t be red gaps at a Brighton game when you’re chasing the Premier League title. The atmosphere shouldn’t be meh in an exciting game, but I’m afraid it was.

Ok, final, final. I don’t know why people are so keen to keep dropping rumors that Jurrien Timber will be back way early. But I have to be real with you, this feels like pipedream stuff. He’s not a superhero. Players don’t recover from injuries as serious as his one that much earlier. March should be where your head is at so you don’t get disappointed. You also have to remember it’s a long road to recovery after those sorts of injuries. You have the little niggles that can plague returns, and you also have the psychological challenges that come with learning to trust your body parts won’t explode. Gabriel Jesus came back last season and he was nowhere near the player he is now. Then he had another minor surgery to clear out issues. Now, he’s finally playing like a megastar again. Serious injuries take time, don’t buy into the fake twitter accounts telling you otherwise.

Ok, now catch The AOP.

I kind of covered off my views on the squad Arteta took out to PSV yesterday, so I’ll just mostly bust some myths this afternoon because there’s a section of the fanbase that will happily double down on how Arteta manages his squads, then act shocked when our players crash later in the season.

That game meant nothing.

It was deader than dead. No one could move up or down in the group. It wasn’t even a friendly that had purpose. We earned the privilege of leaving players at home and didn’t take it.

‘Match sharpness needed’ (more…)

It’s Champions League night baby, and we have absolutely nothing to worry about. We’re top of the group, sitting pretty like Christmas kings, so you’d think we’d, you know, just leave all our best players at home this evening.

Well, not quite.

Arteta is actually taking them to Holland. Saka, Kai, Jesus, Odegaard, Ben White… they’re all on the plane.  I honestly don’t get it. You could say, ‘well, you’re not a professional coach’ and that’d be true. But I also don’t have a record of exhausting players and breaking them during crunch-time moments.

This was his explainer:

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I don’t like talking about parenting. Honestly, there is nothing more boring in my new life as a dad than meeting other dads who want to talk to me about being a dad. The first 18 months of having children is fighting the urge to be a real f*cking bore. I refuse to be the man who slides into grey joggers, soiled New Balance trainers with an ‘I never get to exercise’ paunch.

However, there is one area that I have fully failed at… I have accepted that I will, at all times, have food on my clothes. I can’t fight it anymore. There aren’t enough drycleaners to keep up with the Cheeto handprints and the yogurt kisses. Food mishaps are so regular, I’ve found enough time in the day to find a common enemy.

Egg yolk. Fuck egg yolk.

Yeah, I said it. I don’t mind the white of an egg, but if a child enters the room with the yolk on their hands, I’m fighting them.

So why is this Arsenal-related?

As fans, our equivalent to accepting food on your nice clothes is to be 100% clear on what is going on at PGMOL.

… they are targeting us. We cannot expect to exit games with decisions going for us. PGMOL is egg yolk and after the Arteta rant, the stain is indelible.

Jarred Gillett, an Aussie ref who has a Fox Sports article about him that indicates he had to sign away Liverpool rights because he supported them as a youth seems to be involved in a lot of Arsenal games where he makes heavy-handed decisions against us.

Remember the United penalty decision reversal earlier in the season? Jarred Gillett (VAR).

Remember the penalty decision for the handball against Bill Saliba against Chelsea? Jarred Gillett (VAR).

How about we go back to Palace 2019 when a winner was chalked off by a guy who had never reffed a Premier League game.

Rather, they are entitled to ask why an apparent winner from Sokratis Papastathopoulos seven minutes from time was disallowed after a lengthy VAR review with no explanation offered to anyone in the stadium, replays later showing a possible infraction by Calum Chambers in trying to reach Nicolas Pépé’s corner but nothing fitting a definition of “clear and obvious”.

Who was that? Jarred (VAR).

Who was the guy on VAR duty for the City game where Silva got a penalty for diving and Odegaard was denied an obvious one? You’re not gonna believe it. Jarred (VAR).

It’s hard to find accurate information, but I believe Jarred has now been involved in about 5 of our games this season. Quite a lot for a Liverpool fan who has already been part of some pretty controversial decisions. How many more games is he going to be allowed to interfere with before he’s tasked with working on games he can handle?

Outside this particular individual – it’s clear that PGMOL is struggling. Gary Lineker has withdrawn support for them, Pep G was flippant about them and lost his mind this weekend, Roy Hodgson went off at them this weekend, De Zerbi said he didn’t like them, even Ange the Great had a pop. I cannot believe that there isn’t going to be some sort of action taken against them. They are killing the game. Something needs to change.

• Serial offenders need to be removed
• Howard Webb needs to present a 10-point plan to the fans for how he’s going to change things in the next year
• The Premier League and FA need to show some leadership and intervene with this organization. If it were a company, the board would sack the CEO and someone would launch a hostile takeover. Where are the powers that be here? How can the silence continue?
• Clubs need to be more public about their pressure campaigns that go on behind closed doors (this is 100% true btw)

Mikel Arteta is being punished by the refs because he dared to speak out. We are finished when it comes to 50/50 decisions this season because the group officiating is petulant, childish, and they’ve gone on record saying they don’t always make decisions based on what is right for the game. You can’t win. Say nothing and get screwed. Say something, get nothing.

That’s our lot in life. Arsene Wenger won trophies when Alex Ferguson ran PGMOL. No reason we can’t.

Injury Issues

Mikel Arteta has two major weaknesses. One is not recognizing that his keeping coach is holding him back. A weird miss, considering the money we’ve spent on countless keepers now.

The second is his macho approach to player fitness.

Every club is struggling with injuries this year, but Arsenal are struggling with the same players they always have problems, and it’s because Arteta appears to have changed absolutely nothing.

Tomiyasu has calf issues. We’re now into season three of his, and he’s once again been overplayed and broken at an important time.

Thomas Partey breaks every year, but this year, we’ve broken him twice in training. Not good.

Ben White hamstring issues usually come in March, this year, they came in October.

Bill Saliba dropped out of our title race because of a literal stress injury. He’s a big boy, he’s still developing, his huge frame can’t take the strain… how many games has he missed this season?

Zinchenko also suffers with calf injuries, he breaks down like Tomi, how many rest days will he be getting in December?

We have 5 defenders to choose from. If Arteta doesn’t watch it, we’ll be welcoming Cedric Soares into defence, or finding out how Good Declan Rice is at centre back.

Arteta has a big test this week. Arsenal vs PSV. We have TOP OF THE GROUP privileges. We don’t have to send anyone there. Arsneal could send the U15s. Question is, does Arteta let his boys stay at home and play xBox, or does he insist on putting senior players on the plane just to show solidarity with the second stringers?

This shouldn’t even be a question… but Arteta does silly things in the name of MAN UP.

If I see Saliba step a foot near that private jet, I’ll be writing a strongly worded tweet to Arteta’s dormant Twitter account.

We need to be smarter about the fitness of our best players.

‘But you should see our win percentage’ cannot be the response to constantly breaking our best players.

PARTEY OVER

I’ve been mulling over this Thomas Partey return from injury, and I’m starting to believe we might bin him this January.

• He earns huge money and is never available
• He likes to party. It’s well known. That weird IG story of him in the car summed him up. This guy isn’t sleeping in cryogenic chambers to prolong his career.
• His deal is up summer 2025. This Jan he has 18 months.

This is basically the last window he has any value. Italy, Spain, and France could be viable destinations for him because they are easier leagues on the legs. I reckon his profile is big enough to get a tax free salary match in Saudi.

My gut says we might get a midfielder this January and I know for certain we’ll be going for a defender.

Thomas exiting for £30m? Not the wildest bet.

Watch. This. Space.

Ok. It’s late here. Enjoy the post. Get on our latest podcast, sorry my microphone was playing up!

Let’s get it out the way nice and early. The weirdo part of our fan base that has daddy issues with Unai Emery might be having a good day today, but I certainly am not. How is this man still hurting me? I thought he was out of my life. This is pure pain. I might get a restraining order out on him. Unai Emery is going to haunt me for the rest of my days, but remember this, I did it for you, I did it for Arsenal, I did it for a better life with Arteta.

Do I have… Unai issues? I do. I am the one with the problem. I am the weirdo.

Let’s also get the complaining about the refs out of the way. It is pretty clear that PGMOL is moving like a union, not an organization that has a culture built around the mission of getting to the best possible decisions. Arsenal is treated differently, new rules are invented for us, we are going to have to have to get over the fact that the industrial age version of factory go-slows has been co-opted by referees and they’ve all decided that no 50/50 will go our way.

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Ok, so what are we talking about this morning?

Manchester City vs Aston Villa.

Wow. Don Unai Emery is really making his mark on the Premier League. Language barrier squashed, redemption tour bigger than ERAS, big results like a team trying to be in the mentions of ‘title talk’ twitter (x).

I can’t remember many Manchester City performances as drab as the one at Villa Park the other night. Unai had his player monstering a meek Manchester City midfield all evening (Rodri, clearly their best player). His side had 22 shots, with 7 hitting the target… to City’s 2 attempts all night. The win was one for the history books.

So what are we thinking for the weekend?

1. It’ll be really fucking hard

This is one of the first games of the season where I’d genuinely be happy exiting with a point. I think they are 14 home wins on the bounce or something mad like that. This game is going to be beastly. If we escape with more than a point, be thankful.

2. This is the same vibe as Newcastle two seasons ago

Villa is built like the Newcastle team that bullied us into a loss when we could tasted top 4. It’s a group of young athletes on the up that truly believe the world is disrespecting them as professionals. They are fired up. They are wildly brave, extremely good in the final third, and everyone is a runner… even Tielemans these days. Martin Odegaard was getting ghosted by Ross Barkley the other night, if he plays like that against Villa, we’re going to get toasted.

3. It’s Unai

He’s a great manager of smaller clubs. He doesn’t shy away from a fight. He will try and open teams up. He loves a D vs G type battle. That’s his weakness. He will come to play even if it means getting battered. There won’t be a deep-block and we have to be prepared to play a chaotic game. Villa are like Spurs. Feast or famine… and there has been a lot of feast.

I’m worried about this. The Unai Cuck Army has been sitting on the edge of their seats salivating over Villa. I think they might actually be upset that the Unai redemption is being overshadowed by Arteta. We need to keep it that way so the apologists of criminal football can’t convince us that actually, it was a mistake to allow him to leave.

SPURS lololol…

I don’t want to spend too much time here, but isn’t it amusing that the manager who gave Spurs their club back has 1 point in 15 with a game against Newcastle this weekend?

Yes, it is.

Big Ange took a point off City. 3 goals from 0.4 xG. Journos queued up to say:

‘Was he tactically vindicated?’

Luck is not vindication, and Spurs have had a lot of it.

Now they are facing the injury equivalent of compound interest. They lost players before the fixture crunch, which means a smaller pool of players not getting rotated, now the smaller pool is getting injured.

They lost Son.

It is going to be VERY hard for them to beat Newcastle at the weekend, because I have no doubt Eddie Howe will be seeking a massive response from his side after a SHOCKING loss to Everton.

I love it. Literally, I couldn’t be happier. Personally, the first-world suffering I went through on this very site telling Arsenal fans the winnertivity strategy of Mourinho and Conte was a fast-track to hell, has made this flop out worth it.

Onto Arsenal…

Tomiyasu is out for 6 weeks or so, and it was oh-so predictable.  The biggest weakness of Arteta is his macho approach to player fitness, which is entirely baffling because he spent most of his Arsenal tenure injured. Tactically, we don’t see messy patterns of the same mistakes. If we, as fans, see something rubbish. It’s usually fixed. Where we don’t see improvements is on the fitness front.

Tomiyasu, by my calculation, is now in his third season of breaking down once he’s hit good form. Why does Arteta insist on overplaying him when a rank amateur like me knows what the outcome will be?

I really feel for the player… mostly because I know Arteta should be doing better here.

His biggest weakness is maintaining the fitness of his best players.

Worth noting that the fittest team in the league is City.

There’s some hype that Partey and Emile are going to be fit for this weekend. I’d tamp down that excitement on Thomas Partey – but pretty sure Emile will be back sooner or later. I’m not even sure I want TP05 back early. If he’s starting Liverpool, he’s going AFCON. That’s not good for us.

All of this does leave us short defensively. We’re getting to that part of the season when Cedric Soares dusts off his Copa Mundials. I’m game for that…  but only if it’s for the PSV game.

We have to get through the Villa game, then one of Arteta’s young coaches needs to force him to put out ZERO first-teamers in Holland. The airport is next door to the stadium, our players could be back in bed by 11 if we play it right. But, what I’d prefer is our core group watching the PSV game IN BED.

Chatting January…

We have to take the January window week by week, but as things stand, it seems like defence is the most likely need of recruits. We’re short. Shifting players around to make up the deficit was a struggle last season and I don’t want to be praying the Decland Rice can cover at right-back this season.

I think @AFCcamden is probably right… a defender will be the move.

I’d love a striker, but where’s the value in January?

I’d love a midfielder, but it looks like we’re covered there, and again, it’s better to move on key targets when clubs have three months to replace… not 30 days in a primo market.

On the out-going front, I think there are players we’ll be open to moving.

Aaron Ramsdale to Newcastle for over £35m seems the most obvious. I know it feels like Raya ain’t the full package, but everyone I speak to that knows what they’re doing is telling me to buy stocks now. I didn’t go back in on Bitcoin at the bottom, so I have to put my pennies into Raya.

Thomas Partey is an expensive player that is at the peak of his powers. I think he’s the unlock for a BIG trophy run. He’s also an asset we could sell to move on a BIG midfielder this summer. Saudi, Italy, and France all names that could take a punt. Still think he’ll stay and NOT go to AFCON.

I’m gonna put Emile in here, but really, I don’t believe it. He needs 10 games to prove he’s still alive before we can get a decent fee for him.

Kiwior to Milan? All I hear is that he’s very impressive in training. He was signed early to prevent his fee going to £6om like Lisandro Martinez. I do NOT expect him to leave.

Ok, good post, chaps and chapesses. Now I need you to take a listen of our latest podcast with special guest, Jacob Hawley. We’re looking to expand the bench next year, so tell us what you think of Jacob!

Also, get on his Instagram; it’s top quality.